Monday, July 14, 2014

Embracing My Inner Midwestern Mom

To the inquisitive family members who corner me at the annual barbecue to ask
about my hopes and dreams in between bites of hot dog:

To the
beloved friends who are currently making more at their finance internships than
I’ll see in all my days:

To the naysayers
who tell me my career field will die a miserable death with no one at its
bedside:

Here’s
why I’m attached to my magazines, and here’s why I think they’ll stick around. Magazines
know their audiences intimately: the advice they'll want to take, the trends
they'll want to follow, the issues they’ll want to know more about. Editors can
pick out what their readers care about before they've even heard of it. There's an authentic relationship humming in the pages of a magazine that doesn't exactly replicate
itself in bit.ly links or channel surfing—or at least there is for me.

In
kindergarten, Highlights was the
playmate who brought fun puzzles and games over after school. In middle school,
CosmoGIRL! was the older sister I
never had. In high school and college, New
York magazine has been the sharp-eyed and sharp-tongued professor I needed
outside of the classroom.

This summer, I've realized that to be an editor is to fill the role that
somebody needs. Though I may have been
dismayed to learn it at the time, my Highlights
puzzles were not created by other kids, my CosmoGIRL!
advice columnists were most likely decades beyond being a cool big sister,
and my New York writers will not be
holding office hours (sigh).

Thinking
about why I’ve loved my magazines, I’ve taken what I imagine to be the Family Circle mom—a sensible
shoe-wearing, sporty SUV-driving, teen and tween-wrangling woman from Des
Moines, IA—pulled up a second swivel chair at my desk, and let her read over my
shoulder as I research and pitch and write.

But somewhere between asking her what’s on her summer reading list, listening
to her stories about when her children have made her proud, and swapping Fourth
of July recipes from our Pinterest pages, I’ve realized that she’s gotten in my
head.

The connection
that a magazine has with its readers, it turns out, doesn’t just flow in one direction.
While I’ve got plenty to share with the Family
Circle mom, she’s actually shown me plenty in return. Researching her
credit score made me realize I should probably consider getting my first credit
card, and telling her how the flu can hit at any time of year made me start
carrying hand sanitizer in my bag. She can glance down under my
desk and smile: sensible shoes.I think I'm becoming a little like a Midwestern mom. And I’m glad that I am. Just like I saw my Highlights playmate, my
CosmoGIRL! sister, and my New York
mentor, I hope that the Family Circle
mom sees my words in the magazine as a trusted friend. It’s a sign that I’m building a more authentic relationship with my readers, and in turn they're influencing me.